The film is reminiscent of original silent, black and white films, where man and machine enact the pros and cons of the leap from an agricultural to a mechanical age. The Sentient Thespian interpolates that struggle to the current dawn of a new post-industrial age where humans must interact, and communicate with increasingly intelligent AI.

A live demo and visitor-controlled dramatic scenarios can be
arranged where visitors are welcome to informally assign roles and author
gestures and locomotion of the robot.

The Sentient Thespian is the first of what will be a trilogy of films featuring MekaMon – GOLEMOPOLIS. Wortzel will be working on the second throughout May as part of a residency in the Costa Rican jungle.

Wortzel said: “The playfulness of MekaMon has allowed me to
emulate human emotions through gestures. This points to the potential for the
creation of new social, dramaturgical and psychotherapeutic tools.

“MekaMon, as Puck, attempts to create a transformative
experience for the human and robots, only to realize that the synthetic emotion
does not in the least resemble the parallel complex emotions of sentient beings
like himself. It is a fascinating concept to explore and one that leapt
directly from the advanced articulation of the robot itself.”

Andrew McWilliams, Director at ThoughtWorks Arts, added:
“Adrianne understood that MekaMon marks a key moment in Human Robot
Interaction, drawing out the emotionally expressive potential of non-humanoid
mechanical forms. To explore this she created a highly engaging and humorous
film, linking ideas of human emotion, machine intelligence and projected
‘sentience’.”

“It’s so exciting to see this first film, and to incubate
a project exploring the emergence of a new artificially-intelligent industrial
age.”

Silas Adekunle, CEO and co-founder of
Reach Robotics, said: “We are firm believers in the artistic potential of
robotics – so working with ThoughtWorks Arts has been a fantastic opportunity
to explore and experiment.

“We’re incredibly excited to see the next film and to continue our collaboration with Adrianne.”